Is this sliving?

Apr 10

Yesterday at dinner, my sister told me about April Theory. It’s her speculation that the January til March stretch of the year is an awful time for everybody. But April marks four months into a new year, and it’s when we start to become more adjusted to the way things are.

Earlier in the year, Amelie was crying in my bed over a boy; I was crying over at my desk about job searching and visas. (Somewhere in there, I also cried over a boy.)

We’re only 10 days into April but it’s already looking sunnier (emotions wise, New York landscape wise, overall life wise).

So maybe I believe in April Theory?

“What does the job search look like?”

Like this, everyday, indefinitely.

I grew so attached to my little desk set up.

But yea—I have a job this summer :)

I availed of LinkedIn Premium’s 1-month free trial in the thick of job searching. How odd it is that there’s an entire social media platform dedicated to helping you find a job. Is it really that serious?

In the end, I feel like the winner of life—not all because I’ve signed an offer (!!!) but because I received an offer a slim 4 days before my free trial ends. Huzzah!

On the note of good things: it was a hot day in Soho so I decided to hop into a random bodega—a Sanpellegrino Aranciata sounded divineeeee. The bodega guy happened to be Filipino! He went, “O, kabayan!” (O, fellow countryman!) and I stumbled into an awkward “O! Kabayan!” back (die of cringe). He gave me a Hi-Chew. His name is Kuya Alex.

Are you, too, scared of mysterious subway water dripping into an open cup?

I would describe the most Tina-est and Zoe-est of days involve pretty restaurants, blue sky walks around town, hopping in and out of thrift stores, and window shopping for artsy trinkets. We did all of the above last Sunday.

Kathy finding her fallen eyelashes on the cafe table

“I don’t believe he’s 6 foot.”
Missy: “On it.”

Someone from my building was giving away a practically new Boy Smells candle + new Sushi Go game set. Wins!

My roommates and I spent Good Friday hiking in Beacon.

If I grew up as an outdoor kid, I’d be an extremely pretentious adult about it.

Are they doing homework? Taking the SATs? No, they’re customizing donuts.

My sister has a hopelessly slim window of a type in guys. We played around Hinge’s preferences settings in the hopes of finding someone that fit her criteria.

One guy, she already knew (…and already ghosted).

Two other guys were mid.

And then Hinge said, that’s a wrap.

Do you and your friends ever just… order every soup on the menu?

We circled the reservoir all in the name of spring.

[film rant] [it’s ok, you don’t need to read it]

I was stoked to finally finish a roll I’ve been using since December. Much of my joy comes from awaiting an email containing my scans and opening up the zip file like a present on Christmas day.

The joy didn’t… roll over (haha). Several things didn’t work to my advantage:

I was using an Ektar 200, meaning it shoots best under light. I took a bunch of photos in dark settings.
This was a roll given to me for free because it was expired. Although I was excited to experiment, I think its expiration affected the intensity of the colors in a way that comes off faded and lacking depth.
I took about 5 shots of my favorite view of NYU on my last day of college. All 5 were unfocused.

The sinking feeling of these disappointments has made me committed to using my film camera more consciously.

I bought a roll of Colorplus 200, which works out great because I want to shoot more in the day since the spring weather is fantastic. So I put the new roll in and I’m looking forward to better results.

Anyways, here are the few photos I liked:

[end film rant]

Zoe de Leon